What it takes to keep the peace at local parades

Saturday

Jan 26, 2013 at 12:01 AMJan 26, 2013 at 11:45 PM

The vast number of police officers Mardi Gras parades call for requires a little creative scheduling.

Katie UrbaszewskiStaff Writer

The vast number of police officers Mardi Gras parades call for requires a little creative scheduling.Nearly every certified law-enforcement officer in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes works during parades, officials said. As agencies have been hit with budget cuts, some have worked to trim or eliminate overtime payments and employed strategies aimed at using available manpower more efficiently.Terrebonne Sheriff Jerry Larpenter compares his plan to a deflating and inflating balloon around the parade route."As the parade ends at points, the deputies working these intersections come down the route as backup," he said. That effectively deflates patrols as the first part of the parade ends and inflates them where crowds are still heavy."These deputies are not standing on the intersection at the mall for four hours," he said.Terrebonne deputies do not receive overtime pay to work parades, Larpenter said. Rather, he lets them leave work earlier in the week or take off days later to reduce the hours they're paid for."Mardi Gras is very expensive if you allow all your police officers to work their normal shifts, then work overtime," he said.Lafourche sheriff's deputies do not get overtime pay to work parades, either, spokesman Deputy Brennan Matherne said. However, he estimates that 1,500 man hours are spent on parades every year.The Houma Police Department does pay overtime.In 2010, two weeks of parades cost the department about $45,000 in overtime. It cost about $54,000 in 2011 and $60,000 last year, Chief Todd Duplantis said. He hopes to keep it between $50,000 and $55,000 this year.Houma Police also recently started doing something similar to what the Terrebonne Sheriff's Office does — assigning some officers who are stationed at the end of parade routes to come later than those stationed at the beginning.During any given parade, about 75 of the Houma Police's 82 officers are working in some capacity, Duplantis said. About 10 are in the parade, 50 are working around the parade, 10 are working a regular shift in the city of Houma, and a skeleton crew of detectives is on duty.In total, 175 of just under 300 Terrebonne deputies will be working the Hercules parade Friday night, according to numbers compiled by Maj. Mike Dean. That doesn't include the deputies working regular shifts across the parish.Forty-five deputies will drive in the parade."We're not just looking pretty, waving at the crowd," Larpenter said. "We have to make sure the parade rolls, and we have to make sure we're there when people fight."With thousands of people in the streets to watch the parades, the Houma-Thibodaux Carnival celebration has a reputation as a safer, and calmer, alternative to New Orleans' Mardi Gras. Parades usually have a handful of arrests, often for drunk or disorderly behavior or fighting.Deputies who drive in parades are able to protect float riders and also keep an eye on the crowd, Larpenter said."In case there's a fight, you can stop the fight, arrest the person, put them in a police car, and at the next intersection you give them to a unit to take them to jail," he said.Thibodaux Police Chief Scott Silverii said his department is able to patrol a parade with, roughly estimating, about 70 percent of his force."The last couple of years we've been fully staffed; an all-hands-on-deck situation isn't required anymore," Silverii said. "In the past, we would have to cancel details (patrols for private businesses). Because we're fully staffed, there's not a need to do that anymore."

Staff Writer Katie Urbaszewski can be reached at 448-7617 or katie.urbaszewski@dailycomet.com.